


Masters of Manipulation

by Schreibmaschine



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Soft Upgraded Connor | RK900
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 17:08:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28674216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schreibmaschine/pseuds/Schreibmaschine
Summary: After an argument Gavin decides to ignore Nines. Of course, Cyberlife's best won't let him win, learning to beat him at his own game with the help of his cats.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 14
Kudos: 64
Collections: DBHSecretSanta2020





	Masters of Manipulation

**Author's Note:**

> This is my entry for the #DBHSecretSanta2020! This work is for the wonderful Klayr-de-gall on tumblr! I hope you had a nice Christmas and a good start into the new year!

Nines sat at his desk, his terminal demanding attention he was unwilling to give. He was tapping his index finger on the desk, staring at Gavin, who knew exactly what the android wanted and still ignored him. It was driving him mad.  
‘Gavin.’  
The human moved, but only to reach for a pen, scribble something on a piece of paper, look at his screen and chew on it.  
‘Gavin.’  
It was sending Nines’ stress levels up a few percent how Gavin completely ignored him and left his chair to walk over to the breakroom, likely getting yet another coffee for the day. He could stand a lot – had to when living with Gavin – but being ignored didn’t sit well with him. He sighed, watching the Detective stand in front of the coffee-machine not even sparing a glance his direction.

It was his fault, Nines knew it. Gavin had never been open about his personal life and he should have thought about it before casually telling Tina Gavin had proposed to him. For him, Tina had been one of Gavin’s trusted friends and he had thought the man had told her already. It hadn’t been his mistake, but he still was at fault for embarrassing the human in front of others. He was ready to apologise and do anything to make it up to Gavin again, but ever since their shouting match outside the station during the break, the man ignored him as if he wasn’t even there. If he could just talk to him and explain himself, he doubted Gavin would make things difficult. But he was far too angry at the moment to be approachable. So, Nines had to bear through it and hopefully get a chance on their drive back home.  
The only problem was that Nines was especially bad at waiting when the solution was right at hand and readily available.

But even as Gavin came back to their desk, he continued freezing him off. ‘Gavin, could we just talk, I-‘ Gavin raised his hand showing him the middle finger and Nines just sighed, trying to come to terms with the fact he had to be patient with his inefficiently thinking, illogical, beautiful partner.  
He tried concentrating on his work to get the day’s job done, but that was hard when a large part of his mission log was still [Apologise to Gavin], [Gain his attention] and [Make sure he knows I love him]. After two hours of wordlessly working away, ignoring the other, Nines was fed up with the situation. He was about to make a scene, making Gavin listen to him, when his eyes fell on the picture of Gavin’s cats he kept on his desk. He cocked his head deep in thoughts and smirked as his mind supplied him with a new course of action that might just work.

He watched Gavin for a while until his mischievous grin was well hidden, then he let his hand slip under the table and interface with the station. Manipulating Gavin’s computer over his android terminal wasn’t that difficult, especially for Cyberlife’s best, and so he pretended to be busy as Gavin frowned at his report. ‘The phck?’  
Nines couldn’t help but grin as Gavin sceptically hit a few keys, shrugged and got back to work as nothing happened. Only for Nines to send it again and watch Gavin curse, hitting the key to erase the string of characters the android had put in his document. All the more furious he tapped away at the keyboard and Nines didn’t even try to hide his involvement this time as he gave random input to the document causing lines and lines of characters.

Gavin glared at him – the most attention he had given Nines since their argument. But that was it as the human copied the document to his tablet and continued to write it on there. The android narrowed his eyes at his stubborn human but decided to continue with his plan. He knew of enough ways to annoy Gavin. He stood up from his chair and looked over to Connor and Lieutenant Anderson. He had to speak to them anyways.  
Nines stretched and walked around the desk, absent-mindedly brushing against Gavin’s pens lying perfectly parallel on the table. He continued to walk towards his brother’s desk a winning smile on his face as he heard the sound of them clattering to the ground and Gavin’s hissed curses.

He was in deep conversation with Connor about his most recent case, as Gavin finally stomped up to him, turning him around at the shoulder.  
‘What the phck is wrong with you, toaster?’, Gavin asked with barely repressed anger. ‘What’s this shit supposed to be, huh?’  
Nines huffed amused. ‘So you are finally ready to listen to me now?’  
‘What? No! I don’t have anything to say to you!’ Gavin pushed his finger against his chest, trying hard to keep his voice low. ‘And I really don’t want to know what the hell it is, you want to talk to me about!’  
He hurried off after a final push of his finger that didn’t even cause Nines to sway. The shrugged, threw Connor’s questioning look a grin in return and walked back to their desks. ‘Fine with me.’  
He had one last ace up his sleeve he knew would do the trick.

‘You gotta be kidding me.’ Nines looked up at the human that stared at him lost for words. The android just smiled at him. ‘What do you mean, Detective?’  
‘Out. Of. My. Chair.’  
‘Is it yours? Would you look at that, didn’t notice at all…’  
‘Bullshit. I’m far smaller than you and – I don’t know – it’s on the _goddamn other side of the table!_ ‘  
Nines remained seated and looked around, ignoring Gavin now that the Detective couldn’t do the same to him. An android terminal couldn’t be used by a human after all.  
‘What the phck is this supposed to be?’, Gavin tried again. ‘First you pull the stunt with Tina and now you annoy the hell out of me on top of that?’  
Instead of answering, Nines leaned down to pick up one of the pens Gavin had missed.  
‘Seriously? Now you’re ignoring me?’ Gavin put one hand on the table, the other one was balled to a fist. ‘You know what? See if I care. I’ll sit down on my chair and I don’t care if you are in it. You have two seconds to leave for your own side and leave me be.’

Of course, Nines didn’t move an inch as that had been his exact plan. As Gavin realised, his threat was more than just empty, he looked at him pained and whined. ‘Why are you making me do this? Tina will take photos!’ Nines didn’t deem that a worthy argument and staid where he was. Gavin sighed, but then actually followed through, now effectively sitting in Nines’ lap, leaning over his desk to continue working.  
The android grinned and snaked both his arms around his middle, resting his head against the other’s back. He didn’t say anything, the wordless sign of affection enough for Gavin to relax a bit in his tensed state. ‘You really are a phcking clingy machine, are you? I’m not forgiving you just yet, just so you know.’  
Nines just hummed in response, leaning back a bit to massage his shoulders.  
‘Hey, don’t you dare making me feel guilty for not indulging your silly attempts at reconciliation! It’s not working!’  
Nines just smiled and waited for a few minutes, continuing to work the knots out of his strained muscles, until Gavin subconsciously pressed back into the touch.  
‘You are an asshole, Nines’, Gavin murmured silently, but any bite had left his voice.  
‘I know’, the android answered softly.  
‘And I didn’t want Tina to know just yet. She will tell the entire precinct and then I have Connor on my ass making jokes and Tina behind every corner pestering me about wedding planning and I don’t know what colours the damn tablecloths will have. Wanted to live in peace for a few more weeks.’  
‘I’m sorry’, Nines answered. ‘I didn’t know that and thought she knew already. You normally tell her everything.’  
Gavin sighed. ‘Yeah, it’s not really your fault, okay. I overreacted. But what the phck kinda tactic were you playing to make me realise that? That’s some advanced levels of manipulation.’

Nines chuckled as he thought back to their cats at home, doing the exact same when wanting attention from them. ‘Oh, just from a few friends of mine…’, he hummed ominously. ‘They are the real masters of manipulation…’  
‘Connor, if I meet you alone in some alley, I swear I will-‘  
‘Gavin, it’s Fatty and Purrminator’, Nines told him, fearing for his brother’s safety. ‘Connor’s far too nice for these kinds of tactics.’  
‘That’s it, no more treats.’  
‘Gavin’, Nines tried again.  
‘Hey, you know I can’t keep that up, don’t worry your pretty metal ass.’

Nines chuckled at that and leaned back. ‘Can I get back to work then? Fowler will us if we don’t solve that case soon.’  
Gavin shook his head, already back to typing the report. ‘You dug this grave yourself, now lay in it’, he commented, and Nines sighed, knowing Gavin would have some sort of repercussion in mind for this.

‘And please continue the massage that was awesome.’


End file.
